were to be picked up at 8:00am at our guesthouse, so we had to get up
early to pack and eat breakfast. It has been fairly cold here so
getting up was no small task. The cold also made us yearn for steaming
rice soup, but it is fairly hard to come by in this very westernized
corner of the city. We found only baguette based breakfasts at three
places before we gave up and sat down to have bread for breakfast. We
also ordered three baguette sandwiches to-go so we would have
something for the four hour trip or if our van broke down, which is
notoriously common in these parts. Robert drank Lao coffee, which is
just like regular coffee plus half a can of sweetened condensed milk;
he is a fiend. I ordered hot coca, which means two scoops of straight
coca powder dissolved in hot water. It was horrible until I
commandeered the rest of Robert's "milk," then it was amazing.
Breakfast was a little stressful because we were worried about missing
our bus; the service took a long time probably because most buses
leave at 8 and the place was swamped. Robert was sent ahead to stall
and I waited for our sandwiches, but I made it back before the bus, so
it was all for naught. We also noticed that our guesthouse ran a
restaurant and served rice soup on the cheap - how did we miss that?!
Our ride picked us up and brought us to the minibus station to wait
for a full load. This was achieved when a family of five showed up
with their translator. We all piled in and a single rider gave us his
seat next to me so that Robert and I could sit next to each other,
thanks! The ride would have been unremarkable except for the other
passengers. The family was from New Zealand and their accents were
dead ringers for the Flight of the Concords frontmen. I kept waiting
for them to burst into song, but they disappointed. The research
doctor dad did, however, grill his translator about local history and
flora and fauna, etc. They were a little hard to hear, but if I leaned
forward and cranes my neck just so, I got a great history and culture
lesson. Then the charitable single rider piped up, he was a Swiss guy
married to a Lao woman. He spoke great English and had lots of
outsider-insider information. The three hours passed quickly. One
short anecdote: the Swiss man said he enjoyed sharing a chicken with
his wife - she liked the head, the feet and the intestines, and he ate
all the muscle.
We got dropped off on a dirt road that lead into a dusty, ramshackle
town. Chickens, dogs and children were free-ranging. We had no idea
where the guesthouses were and just kept walking until we got our
bearings, meaning we followed another group of backpackers until they
found the guesthouses. (The doctor family was swept off to their fancy
lodgings by fairies.) As we wandered around town, we were greeted by
several small kids, "Sabai dee pen!" We knew sabai dee was hello, but
what did pen mean? Then we remembered, the guidebook said to bring
pens for the kids, much better than candy. So really they were saying,
"hello! Pen?" but we didn't have any to give away. We checked out
rooms at several places and were turned away from several others
because they were full, a new experience.
We settled on Namhoun Guesthouse, a bamboo bungalow with hot water and
reinforced walls for 50,000 Kip. We settled onto the porch to polish
off our sandwiches that survived the short, uneventful ride to town
and noticed the best feature of the bungalow -- a sweet hammock. (Just
like yours, Ben, from REI. I wondered if they imported them before
Robert pointed out that they probably just didn't export this one.)
Then I napped in the hammock; I don't know why, but it is just too
easy to sleep in a patch of sunlight in a hammock. I think Robert read
- he is really into his book, Drop City by T.C. Boyle.
We roused ourselves when our bellies started rumbling for more fuel
and sought out the Indian joint here, Deen Rest Araunt (according to
their staff uniform). They also have wi-fi, so it was a win-win. We
had samosas and saag aloo with naan, tasty. We further stretched the
meal by having sweet coffee afterwards. When the temperature started
dropping at dusk, we retreated to our house for more reading, this
time wrapped in blankets inside. This is winter, mid-fifties - brrr!
Dinner was super tasty Lao food. It took a while, but I passed the
time by creaming Robert, 100- nil in gin! Laap is a signature lao
dish, which we have had a few other places, but here is was most
tastiest. It is basically a minced meat salad with mint, garlic,
cilantro, hot chilis, and bean sprouts served with a bamboo canister
of sticky rice. We also had red curry, but I liked the laap better. It
was fun to ball up the sticky rice and dunk it into the warm curry
sauce though. Oh, and the sticky rice here is purple. After dinner, we
ran into our british friends from the slow boat ride, the tourist
circuit is pretty small in these parts. We enjoyed chatting to them
for a while, they are traveling faster than we are, but along similar
routes, so we were grilling them on how they would get into Vietnam
and up and down the coast. They are planning on a 24 hour bus ride,
which I don't think we will opt to replicate. 24 hours on a bus seems
like hell, sleeper compartment or no.
Off to sleeps. I wish I could share the feel and look of the towering
silhouettes of the nearby mountains, but we still haven't gotten a
tripod. I might try to use a building or a wall tomorrow night if I
feel inspired. For now, they are all mine. Goodnight.
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